Air Force Link inaugurates 'Perspectives'

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SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) --  The Air Force Link "Web exclusives" page for the month of June takes a unique look at three separate stories, not only through the lenses of three Air Force News photojournalists, but through their personal narrations as each tells the unique perspective of his story in his own words.

Each photojournalist provides an audio and visual journey as a witness to three emotional and inspiring tales of Airmen at their best and at times pushed to their physical limits.

The first perspective appears on June 1 -- a photo essay by Air Force News Agency photojournalist Tech. Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo, highlighting his coverage of pararescue training called “Sink or Swim.”  Sergeant Ricardo follows a PJ class going through the pararescue indoctrination course, affectionately known as “hell week.”

He begins the action after a full 10-hour day of instruction and training, in what instructors refer to as an extended training day. Sergeant Ricardo takes us through an exhaustive night filled with pain and tribulation including a forced march, obstacle course, three-mile run, and water training that ends at 5:30 the next morning. It’s an eye-opening look at some of the Air Force’s most intense training.

The next perspectives story is courtesy of AFNEWS photojournalist Tech. Sgt. Larry Simmons -- a photo essay documenting a class of Airmen attending detainee operations training at Fort Lewis, Wash.

On June 12, Sergeant Simmons will give us a glimpse of what Airmen will learn before being tasked with the responsibility as a prison guard force at a deployed location. Sergeant Simmons begins his story with a look at how the class deals with pepper spray and shows how the students handle aspects of detainee operations after being pepper-sprayed themselves.

The piece also depicts students’ reactions to civilian role players as detainees and shows how students are given a realistic look, by an Army NCO, on everything that can go wrong by the "worst of the worst."  He wraps up the piece by showing how the class comes together to work as a cohesive team.

On June 21, the most emotional of the perspectives, titled “A Wing and a Prayer,” shows an inside look at Wilford Hall Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.  AFNEWS photojournalist Master Sgt. Ken Wright spent 10 days at the Air Force’s premier NICU facility, documenting what would become some of the most heartwarming and emotional experiences of his 20-year Air Force career.

His camera documented some of those miracles and showed the lives touched by the men and women who work there. His images were witness to, in his words, “the awesome power and grace of the doctors and nurses in the NICU,” and their ability to save lives of premature babies born to servicemembers and their families.

Sergeant Wright takes us into a world most of us will never see, and admits that seeing the size of the tubes in these tiny patients is one of the tougher things he has ever done. 

We learn of a successful medical evacuation mission in Del Rio, Texas, where 3-day-old Logan is rushed to the NICU for extended care. We hear about the story of Anissa, born 11 weeks early at 1 pound, 3 ounces, and her amazing journey toward recovery. 

And there is the gut-wrenching finale of the birth by cesarean section after only 20 weeks of pregnancy, and the NICU’s all-out efforts to save the "tiniest of the tiny." These stories are all told in an emotionally charged narration by the photojournalist who feels he was lucky enough to briefly become a part of this remarkable world.

These three compelling first-hand accounts of very different aspects of the Air Force take the two-dimensional images and words of news feature stories and bring them to life through the voices of those closest to the story.